Screen Rant’s 2012 Summer Movie Preview

Published 2 years ago
by
Kofi Outlaw
, Updated June 4th, 2014 at 10:10 am,

Summer is upon us again, and that means it’s that time of year for those movies that once again deliver the jaw-dropping, mind-blowing, smile-inducing memories of a lifetime that only come with summer blockbusters. And, given the lineup of films in this year’s Summer Movie Preview, the blockbuster movies of 2012 are going to deliver like never before.

From the superhero team-up event that will kick everything off (Marvel’s The Avengers), to the grand finale in arguably one of the best movie trilogies of all time (Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises), to a master filmmaker returning to the sci-fi/horror sub-genre that catapulted him to fame (Ridley Scott’s Prometheus), to the first princess fairy tale from the best animation studio in the business (Pixar’s Brave) – this summer has something for everyone, and a whole lot extra in between.

Scroll down for Screen Rant’s handy guide to your summer at the movies.

Feel free to scroll through the list below, or jump to any specific months to read about those films:

MAY 2012 MOVIES

The Avengers

May 4th

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agency brings together a team of superheroes to help save the Earth from annihilation by extraterrestrial invaders. Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston star.

OUR TAKE: This is what it’s all been leading to, folks. Early reviews of The Avengers say that the film lives up to all the hype, and millions of people will be heading to theaters to find out if that’s true. Count us among them. Excelsior!

OUR TAKE: Fans of the original Dark ShadowsTV show notwithstanding, this looks like a fun (and funny) creation by Burton and his “muse” Johnny Depp. Not saying it’s going to be a modern classic – but some spooky fun with a dash of horror sounds like a good lead-in to the heart of summer.

The Dictator

May 11th (U.S.)

The heroic story of a dictator (Sacha Baron Cohen) who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed. Megan Fox, Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, John C. Reilly, B.J. Novak and J.B. Smoove co-star.

OUR TAKE: Sacha Baron Cohen tends to inspire love/hate responses to his satirical characters (or rather, caricatures). The Dictatorwill actually have a plot – rich dictator becomes poor American immigrant – and will once again see Cohen working with comedy veteran Larry Charles (Seinfeld), who also helped craft both Borat and Brüno. Expect more of the same (the good, bad, and ugly) from Dictator.

Battleship

May 18th

A fleet of ships is forced to do battle with an armada of unknown origins in order to discover and thwart their destructive goals. Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna and Liam Neeson star.

OUR TAKE: Battleshipmaintains it’s negative first impression as a Transformers knock-off that has nothing to do with the board game it’s based on. Still, reports from overseas (where the film has already opened to $58 million and counting) are that director Peter Berg has made the epitome of a mindless, action-packed, summer popcorn blockbuster. Whether or not that’s a good thing depends on your tastes.

OUR TAKE: With its trailers and marketing materials making a big effort to attract the male demographic, fellas are going to have little to object to if their lady suggests What to Expect as good date night viewing. Best of luck with that.

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Men In Black III

May 25th

Agent J (Will Smith) time-jumps back to the 1960s, where an alien with its sights on the younger version of Agent K (Josh Brolin) poses a threat to the future of the MIB organization — and humankind’s very existence.

OUR TAKE: Men In Black III has been plagued by so many script and production problems that it’s hard to view it with anything but skepticism and wariness. After all, how long can a film skate by on Josh Brolin’s uncanny impersonation of Tommy Lee Jones?

Moonrise Kingdom

May 25th (U.S. – Limited Release)

In this Wes Anderson film, a pair of lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them. Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Ed Norton, Frances McDormand, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray star.

OUR TAKE: Wes Anderson fans have plenty to get excited about: An Anderson film that actually deals with kids as opposed to just privileged (and often pretentious) adults; a cool ’70s cinema look and vibe; a cast of superb actors and an ironic and winking love story at its core. Now that we mention it, Moonrise Kingdommay have enough potential to get even Anderson’s detractors excited.

Movies I’ll be seeing (in order of release):
Marvel’s The Avengers 3D
Marvel’s The Avengers 3D
Marvel’s The Avengers 2D
Men In Black III
Snow White and the Huntsman
Prometheus
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Brave (maybe)
The Amazing Spider-Man
Ted (maybe)
The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Knight Rises (depending on whether it lived up to the hype)
The Bourne Legacy
(And even though it’s a December release) The Hobbit

Ill be seeing the avengers in 3d and probobly 2d. The dark knight rises in imax (which is 2 hours away) and at my local theatre. Abraham lincon VH, prometheaus, brave, MIB3, lawless, bourne legacy, and probobly everything else on the list with the expetion of a few. Oh the perks of getting free movies

Why choosing? I’m gonna watch them all!!
I’m a little bit fortunate that movie tickets are cheap in my country, which is only US$2.5 on weekdays.
But to be honest, I’m not really interested on Rock of Ages (it seems like High School Musical with Tom Cruise in it) and G.I Joe Retaliation (it looks like another brainless-explosive-dull blockbuster films).

For everyone in the States and elsewhere where Battleship hasn’t released yet – its great fun and the second half is actually smart as they actually use the whole Battleship Game concept and fuse it in the movie. Damn awesome. Don’t go looking at a very rich story and a lot of logical connect, but the second half should do it for anyone; it’s worth your money!

Also, the aliens are some of the best we’ve seen in recent times and the alien invasion itself is believable and something we haven’t seen in the tripe of alien invasion movies that came out in the last two years. Again, the invasion is very believable and the borrowing of ideas from the military and all is damn interesting.

The best part is that the invasion doesn’t feel all rushed as it does in general alien movies and it’s a step-by-step approach.

Taylor Kitsch is cocky as always and the girl’s damn cute. Also, don’t expect a lot of Liam Neeson; Rihanna surprisingly was good fun in her small role.

I think GI Joe has got me more excited then TDKR.Im just curious to see how Nolan closes out the trilogy.To be honest im more excited for the Batman reboot so i can see some of my other favorite Batman villains and what direction they will go next time around.

Well holy crap! I had no idea so many of the films I have been reading about are just around the corner like Prometheus and Lincoln: Vampire Hunter! (just to name a few). Guess I have CBM tunnel vision.

I don’t honestly know how people can afford to go see all or even the majority of them without bankrupting themselves.

Avengers/Prometheus/The Amazing Spider-Man: these 3 I will buy the DVD for, altho I have some doubts that Spider-man will be any good. Still, gotta buy it, cuz it is a Marvel superhero.

The Dark Knight Rises/The Bourne legacy/Abraham Lincoln: vampire Hunter/Snow White and the Huntsman/Dark Shadows/Battleship: I will watch these on Netflix, probably worth a watch but not worth buying. Dark Shadows is going to stink, but I will watch it anyways, just so I can write Depp & Burton afterwards and tell them what an insult it was to the great legacy of the original DS, which was great. Dark Knight I will have doubts about, as none of the other batman movies have been very good. Snow White is probably MEH, but I am curious. Abe Lincoln could be the sleeper “gee, not too bad in an entertaining sort of way” surprise, same with Battleship.

Not sure when they are coming out, but I will also watch the new Superman (previous ones have been dumb, tho) on Netflix, as well as The Raven, which actually olooks fairly good. I am currently waiing for The Woman In Black to come out next month on Netflix, as that looks good. if I really like it, I will buy the DVD.

‘Lawless’ only changed its release date from May to August because they want to bank in on the inevitable megastardom that Tom Hardy will garner after ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. It’s a smart move on the studio’s part. The title changed because ‘The Wettest County’ wasn’t badass enough and called to mind sexual innuendo…but Ryan Gosling is going to be in another film title ‘Lawless’ next year…so there’s that.

Avengers next Tuesday here in UK and yes deffo in 3D.. gonna watch dark Knight rises (although in the tight suit he wears with muscles built in would his rise be noticeable :D) Prometheus, spiderman and them what ever me budget lets me see . Enjoy ya Summer films every 1

Right now nothing will have a chance against The Avengers until its fifth weekend. As for The Dictator changing its release date because it was afraid of Dark Shadows, that’s a bunch of bunk. The Dictator was being nice to Dark Shadows. The next big box office will be The Amazing Spider-Man then The Dark Knight Rises. That’s it. Everything else is going to have to rely on dvd and bluray to recoup their losses.